#winning

Protests Work! Cornyn & Rubio Drop SOPA, Obama Rejects Keystone

Here’s a little good news to cheer up your Wednesday: Today’s anti-censorship protest across the Internet has already forced Republican senators Marco Rubio and John Cornyn to drop their support of the SOPA bill. Already! Rubio and Cornyn weren’t just supporters, though — Rubio co-sponsored the legislation that would allow the U.S. government to shut down almost any website for almost any reason, and Cornyn heads the GOP’s Senate campaign group.

Internet protests on Wednesday quickly cut into Congressional support for anti-web piracy measures as lawmakers abandoned and rethought their backing for legislation that pitted new media interests against some of the most powerful old-line commercial interests in Washington.

In other “protests sometimes actually work” news, the Obama Administration will officially deny the Keystone XL tar-sands oil pipeline permit today, after months of protests by environmental groups and growing outrage from Obama’s own Democrat supporters. This does not mean the pipeline is completely dead, but it’s a firm step in the right direction. The Los Angeles Times reports:

The Obama administration has decided that it will not issue a permit before Feb. 21 for the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline, according to people with knowledge of the decision.

The announcement, which could come as early as Wednesday, comes in response to a 60-day deadline Congress imposed in late December on the decision-making process for the permit as part of a deal to extend a payroll-tax break and unemployment benefits for two months.

Have any of the so-called leadership that has filibustered/not written any jobs legislation come forward yet with a bipartisan response along the lines of "jawb killing" decisions by the President are hurting the country?

Edit: Why yes freakish, they have: President Obama is about to destroy tens of thousands of American jobs and sell American energy security to the Chinese. The President won’t stand up to his political base even to create American jobs. This is not the end of this fight. Boner's manservant/mouthpeice.

You may be right. SOPA (Stop Online Piracy) is the house version of the bill to curb our rights. The senate version of the bill coming up is PIPA (Protect Internet (from) Piracy) which is almost as bad.

BaldarTFlagass

And the president's balls grew three sizes that day!!!

chicken_thief

In other news, Marcus is licking his chops to spear head the #OWH movement.

tessiee

*sings*
Ha-boo lor-ay, ha-boo lor-ay…

slithytoves

That's a small but positive step to making 2012 better than that piece of shit we called 2011.

Way I see it, Hollywood can shut down the Internet the second it stops putting out nothing but shitty retreads and focus-driven pap. Having a hard time believing Al Franken is holding water for intellectual bankruptcy.

ElPinche

Protecting US corporate media from theft is like putting guards around a garbage dump. The opposition in Congress should just play Green Lantern over and over again to make the point that it's not fucking worth it.

HarryButtle

This is just a tease, right? What AREN'T they telling us?

IRLTroll

We're all being moved to Gitmo. Easier to lock us down than monitor the internets. Also bails out the private prison industry.

Fi10Gale

SOPA is written in the House. PIPA is coming and it was written in the Senate. This is just a battle, the war continues.

MildMidwesterner

My next protest will be to continually smoke cuban cigars until we close Guantanamo.

chicken_thief

I like that! Since I don't smoke cigars, I'll continue to smoke pot until they legalize it. In solidarity, my brothah!!! Yes we can. Yes we can!! Yes we can!!!!

Somebody needs to tell Republicans that "Keystone XL" has nothing to do with that shitty fratboy beer they loved to drink back in college.

Ducksworthy

I'm sorry Hollywood but you haven't produced anything worth stealing in over 30 years. Drivel and Pap seem to be your most productive screen writers.

Barrelhse

Hollywood is, and always been, one of the biggest rackets in history.
Artists? Entertainment? Film Stars? What a shuck.

EatsBabyDingos

Isn't Keystone XL the new 142 oz Keystone beer? Fits easily in a Hefty bag for easy drinkin' under the overpass all day long.

LabRodent

When Rentboy.com and Latinbooty.com went offline in protest Rubio and Cornyn drop the bill.

EatsBabyDingos

Congress acting like grownups? Why, it makes me want to put down the intertubes and get back to work. Thankfully, my jerb at Homeland Security pays me to take copious notes on the comments made by bad Americans in intertube comment sections, so type slowly since I iz so Keith Stoned.

prommie

Whats this policy and politics stuff? Boooooorrriiiiinnnngggg. Tits or GTFO.

El Pi█che

Will a post on Newt suffice?

prommie

Newt has mighty manboobs.

SudsMcKenzie

Lemmi verify all this stuff on the internet.

Callyson

So not only did the Reeps shoot themselves in the foot with their opposition to extending the payroll tax cuts and UI benefits, they also couldn't get Obama to cave on the XL pipeline like they thought he would. The wingnuts must be so confused…

When the environmental review needed a year and a half to finish its work, the feeb repubs who forced an unnecessary deadline, makes them the real villains…

HarryButtle

Too wordy…the Repubes will counter with "THAT BLAH PRESIDENT KILLS JERBS!" and who do you think the mouth-breathers are gonna believe?

MinAgain

I love it when a plan comes together.

ElPinche

To nip this in the bud, they should play Green Latern and Sucker Punch over and over again during a congressional session. This will make the point that our shitty fucking media isn't worth protecting anyways.

GOPCrusher

Have not seen Sucker Punch yet, but I recently viewed a movie on Netflix On Demand called Bitch Slap, which I highly recommend if you are into high quality crap.

DaRooster

Aaargh!! You kent do away with me Matey!

What? Different pirates… OK.

GregComlish

“The problem for the content industry is they just don’t know how to mobilize people,” said John P. Feehery, a former Republican leadership aide and executive at the motion picture lobby. “They have a small group of content makers, a few unions, whereas the Internet word, the social media world especially, has a tremendous reach. They can reach people in ways we never dreamed of before. "

Yes, the media industry just doesn't have what it takes to reach people. All they have is television, radio, periodicals, billboards, movies, books, artists, actors, writers, musicians, designers, and a large segment of web 2.0. How will they ever manage to get their fair say in this hostile environment?

sati_demise

I think you may have something there.

emmelemm

And money. Lots and lots of fucking money.

And lobbyists.

UGH.

OneYieldRegular

Let's take this moment to shine some light on American Petroleum Industry president Jack Gerard, who recently, speaking like some Mafioso, issued a public threat to Obama that his re-election would be made impossible should he not issue a permit for Keystone. A captain of industry just cold coming out and saying to the government: do our bidding or else. I'm guessing Gerard never saw "Born Yesterday."

GOPCrusher

Kind of like Boehner, McConnell, etc. sending that letter to Bernanke telling him to either stop doing things to help the economy or face the political repercussions.

Extempor████

#Occupy████!

GOPCrusher

Well, since TransCanada has already sold the oil to be produced to the Chinese, the pipeline needed to be constructed all the way to the Gulf Coast to be loaded on tankers. If this pipeline was really all about America's energy security, it would have only needed to be built as far as North Dakota.

Negropolis

Bingo. This pipeline has absolutely nothing to do with "energy independence", which is another focus-grouped conservative term to justify oil drilling every fuckin' where within the United States.

sati_demise

But Obama can still indefinitely detain anyone he wants with no trial, amirite?

I'm supposed to get out my pitchfork because Google, of all giant, evil corporations, put some black marks under it's all-seeing eyes for a day? Google, whose business model is largely built on monetizing other people's shit and laughing all the way to the bank? Right.

lulzmonger

Play SOPA off, Keyboard Cat.
One series of tubes gets a reprieve, while another series of tubes gets the cold shoulder.

Gotta wonder if the impending possibility of epic box- & pizza deliveries might sway a few votes. Like Colbert said, "This is a hornet's nest, & now I am going to put my penis into it" may not be the wisest strategy to use with Anonymous-type folks online.